I love a good conspiracy theory!

22/10/2010

As folks may be aware, I tend to take conspiracies with a grain of salt. But since this is one of my own twisted invention, I intend to support it to the hilt! Or at least till I can be shamed into no longer supporting it.

I was sitting back and in a movie watching mood a couple of weeks ago. I scoured the TV stations and found one that floated my boat: ENEMY OF THE STATE (released in 1998).

I was a bit amused with it all especially all the technology that it explored. Interesting crosses such as digital cameras and images being recorded to video tape. I mean why not store them digitally? Well because back in 1997-1998, hard drives where smaller than they are today that’s why!

I was also amused by the size of the directional mics that some operatives had stashed in their newspapers as they tried to bug a conversation between Wil Smith and Lisa Bonet. I watched it so I could actually do a blog about the change in technology between then and now. And then something caught my eye.

When Gene Hackman was doing a search on John Voight’s character’s dossier (and so amusing how he managed to crack into the database) up popped the following screen.

Pretty mundane looking isn’t it? And then I caught the DOB: 9.11.40. Hmm.

See one major sub plot of this film was legislation to up the surveillance powers of law enforcement forces. I remember one memorable quote:

Congressman Phillip Hammersley: Telecommunications Security and Privacy Act. Invasion of privacy is more like it. – You read the Post? “This bill is not the first step towards the surveillance society. It is the surveillance society.”

There was another when the bill looked like it would fail. Something about:

Never mind. Someone will blow something up and then they will beg us to do it.

I actually am not too sure exactly, but that is what I think I heard. Probably totally wrong.

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Flash forward. On the 11th day of September, 2001, someone blew something up.

Now in the US, they record dates as MMDDYYYY. So that day become know as 9/11. Interesting huh? Remember the pic above? DOB? 9.11.40.

More interesting is 47 days later, George Bush signed the Patriot Act :

The Act dramatically reduced restrictions on law enforcement agencies’ ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act’s expanded law enforcement powers could be applied.